Unsung Hero: Andy Talley

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Every Tuesday on the 94WIP Mike & Ike Show, Michael Barkann and Ike Reese welcome a new #UnsungHero in Philadelphia on their show. This unsung hero is recognized for their off-the-field accomplishments. If you are interested in being an #UnsungHero call 215-625-6550.

Andy Talley has been the head football coach of the Villanova Wildcats since 1985. Talley, 71, started a Bone Marrow foundation and has saved nearly 300 lives finding bone marrow matches.

“It was just one of those deals, where I happened to be listening to WIP actually, and they had one of those medical shows on and an oncologist came on and said, ‘We don’t have enough doners to save enough people that need to be saved,'” Talley told the 94WIP Mike & Show. “And people are dying ever day needlessly because we simply have nobody on the registry.”

“So what’s the answer? The answer is we need more doners and I’m going, I coach 90 kids every year and if I could get these 90 kids to get on the marrow doner list—you know these are good, young, strong kids,” Talley said. “And then I went like, holy mac-roll, I could get other college football teams involved. So we have 43 college football teams that worked with us this year and sometimes we have almost 58, depending if the coach will work with me every year. And we have put over 53,000 new people on the registry on the last 23 years.”